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Starting hands for beginners in poker tournaments

Starting hands for beginners in poker tournaments download
This is the first article in a series of three on poker tournaments online. If you are a new player in No Limit Hold'em tournaments, you might be in doubt as to which hands to play. When you watch a poker tournament on the television, you often see players playing and raising with all kinds of hands. Now you may be in doubt if you should do the same.

Our best advice is to find a cheap poker tournament online, and then follow the following tips:

If you have never played poker before, it's important that you just grasp what a quality hand is. A general rule is if both cards are between T and A, then you usually have a playable hand. The higher they are, the better they are. Likewise, most pairs are most playable, and again the higher the better. The best hands are AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK and AQ. It adds extra value to the hand if both cards are in the same color or close to each other.

Many players like to play suited connectors, ie hands with cards in sequence and in the same color as for example 8d 9d or 4h 5h. They do, because if they hit the hand, they are well hidden and they can win a big pot. But you can easily get into trouble with those types of hands if you hit only the flop or another player flops a bigger straight or flush.

Early in the tournament you only play quality hands. There is not much money in the pot at first and your chips are valuable. It is usually a good strategy to wait for big hands and then win money from the more loosely playing opponents. Later in the tournament, when the blinds and the average size of the stacks rise, it's time to extend the range of your starting hands.

You must also be willing to play more hands in late position. If you sit first, KT is not a good hand to play as you can easily get into trouble if a K flop and a late player play a better kicker. If you are the last to act, then you can better judge if your hand is good and therefore such hands are most likely to play in late position.

The best tip is to play some cheaper online tournaments. It's a great way to get a "feel " for the game and give you a good exercise experience. Another method is to play a so-called freeroll, which is free poker tournaments online, where the poker room stands for the pot. You can thus play a tournament, with a chance to win real money, but without having to throw money into it. The only drawback is that since the players have no money involved in the tournament, the game often becomes wild and very loose, and is often far from how poker is usually played.

Do not cheat yourself for more tips on Wind in Poker.dk.